Phillip and Noreen Silver perform neglected repertoire by Jewish composers. A Performing the Jewish Archive event (Leeds and York).

A concert of music emphasizing renewal and (re)discovery, with four composers who were caught up in the horrors of the Holocaust. The composers to be presented are Josima Feldschuh, James Simon, Paul Ben-Haim and Hans Gal, four artists of differing backgrounds and denouements whose common linkage was their victimisation during the Holocaust.

The poignant story of Josima Feldschuh is one of potential not permitted to develop. A prisoner in the Warsaw Ghetto, she composed a small number of promising solo piano works before dying of tuberculosis at the age of 12. Now just being rediscovered, the richly Romantic music of Berlin-born James Simon is far removed from any connection with 20th century developments. Simnon was toi eventually perish in Auschwitz.

In contrast Paul Ben-Haim is one of a number of émigré composer. He managed to flee Germany, and became one of Israel’s leading composers, with a music which blends Western and the Middle Eastern idioms. Austrian-born Hans Gál found sanctuary in the UK his considerable body of music is now enjoying a welcome return to the concert repertoire.